Fascinating ... beguiling ... Calasso is vital - Stuart Jeffries, Guardian
There was a time when, upon encountering other beings, it was not certain whether they were animals or gods or lords of a certain species, demons or ancestors. Or simply humans. One day, which lasted many thousands of years, humans did something that no other species had yet tried, we began to imitate those same animals that persecuted us: the predators. And we became the hunter.
In this new book, Roberto Calasso takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through centuries and across cultures - from the Paleolithic era to Turing's Machine - weaving together stories of gods, animals and humans in an extraordinary tale of transformation.
He writes like a poet, not a professor, in glinting, enigmatic nuggets of narrative - Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times
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Imprint: Penguin
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Published: 28/04/2020
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ISBN: 9780241296769
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Length: 464 Pages
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RRP: £25.00
Reviews
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Informed by myth, this damning exploration of man's detachment from the animal world is ninth in a staggeringly learned series
Stuart Jeffries, Guardian
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A poetic, erudite exploration of history, myth and hunting as the first 'art for art's sake' . . . Calasso practises a sort of literary palaeoarchaeology . . . he writes like a poet, not a professor, in glinting, enigmatic nuggets of narrative finely voiced by his translator Richard Dixon
Financial Times
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Allusive ... dazzlingly eclectic ... The Celestial Hunter is an 'initiation through the book', speculative but capable of changing how you see things
Dominic Green, Spectator
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Calasso is especially good at describing the characters of myth and legend with a novelist's omniscient authority ... whose flow of associations leaves you feeling not out of your depth, but smarter and better read
A. E. Stallings, New York Times
